Neil M. Gunn
Encyclopedia
Neil Miller Gunn was a prolific novelist, critic, and dramatist who emerged as one of the leading lights of the Scottish Renaissance
of the 1920s and 1930s. With over twenty novels to his credit, Gunn was arguably the most influential Scottish
fiction writer of the first half of the 20th century (with the possible exception of Lewis Grassic Gibbon
(James Leslie Mitchell)). Like his contemporary, Hugh MacDiarmid
, Gunn was politically committed to the ideals of both Scottish
nationalism
and socialism
(a difficult balance to maintain for a writer of his time). Gunn's fiction deals primarily with the Highland
communities and landscapes of his youth, though the author chose (contra MacDiarmid and his followers) to write almost exclusively in English
rather than Scots
or Gaelic
(a language he lamented never having learned). Despite his lack of Gaelic he was heavily influenced in his writing style by the language.
in the county of Caithness
, the northernmost county of mainland Scotland. His father was the captain of a herring
boat, and Gunn's fascination with the sea and the courage of fishermen can be traced directly back his childhood memories of his father's work. His mother would also provide Gunn with a crucial model for the types of steadfast, earthy, and tradition
-bearing women that would populate many of his works.
Gunn had eight siblings, and when his primary schooling was completed in 1904, he moved south to live with one of his sisters and her husband in St. John's Town of Dalry
, Kirkcudbrightshire
. He continued his education there with tutors and sat the Civil Service
exam in 1907. This led to a move to London
, where the adolescent Gunn was exposed to both the exciting world of new political and philosophical ideas as well as to the seamier side of modern urban life. In 1910 Gunn became a Customs and Excise Officer and was posted back to the Highlands. He would remain a customs officer throughout the First World War
and until he was well established as a writer in 1937.
Gunn married Jessie Dallas Frew (or "Daisy") in 1921 and they settled in Inverness
, near his permanent excise post at the Glen Mhor distillery.
, such as Hugh MacDiarmid, James Bridie
, Naomi Mitchison
, Eric Linklater
, Edwin Muir
, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
, and George Blake. Blake and George Malcolm Thomson were the founders of the Porpoise Press, whose mission was to reestablish a national publishing industry for Scotland, and they became Gunn's publisher until their absorption by Faber and Faber
in the mid-1930s. The first novels Gunn published were The Grey Coast in 1926 and The Lost Glen in 1928.
During this period, he was also active in the National Party of Scotland
, which formed part of what became the Scottish National Party
.
for fiction), Gunn was able to resign from the Customs and Excise in 1937 and become a full-time writer. He rented a farmhouse near Strathpeffer
and embarked on his most productive period as a novelist and essayist.
Gunn's later works in the 1940s and into the 1950s became concerned with issues of totalitarianism
.
's Zen in the Art of Archery
had upon Gunn.
Gunn's utilisation of these ideas was not so much mystical as providing a view of the individual in a "small self-contained community, with a long-established way of life, with actions and responses known and defined". He took the playing of fiddle reels as an example: "how a human hand could perform, on its own, truly astonishing feats - astonishing in the sense that if thought interfered for a moment the feat was destroyed". This thought-free state could be a source of delight.
In his later years, Gunn was involved in broadcasting and also published in diverse journals such as Anarchy Magazine
in London, The Glasgow Herald, Holiday (U.S.A.), Saltire Review, Scotland's Magazine, Scots Review, and Point magazine in Leicester.
Neil Gunn is commemorated in Makars' Court
, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.
Selections for Makars' Court
are made by The Writers' Museum; The Saltire Society; The Scottish Poetry Library.
See also
Novels:
Essays and autobiography:
Scottish Renaissance
The Scottish Renaissance was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid 20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scottish literary renaissance, although its influence went beyond literature into music, visual arts, and politics...
of the 1920s and 1930s. With over twenty novels to his credit, Gunn was arguably the most influential Scottish
Scottish literature
Scottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. It includes literature written in English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Brythonic, French, Latin and any other language in which a piece of literature was ever written within the boundaries of modern Scotland.The earliest...
fiction writer of the first half of the 20th century (with the possible exception of Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell , a Scottish writer.-Biography:...
(James Leslie Mitchell)). Like his contemporary, Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
, Gunn was politically committed to the ideals of both Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
(a difficult balance to maintain for a writer of his time). Gunn's fiction deals primarily with the Highland
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
communities and landscapes of his youth, though the author chose (contra MacDiarmid and his followers) to write almost exclusively in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
rather than Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
or Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
(a language he lamented never having learned). Despite his lack of Gaelic he was heavily influenced in his writing style by the language.
Early life
Neil Gunn was born in the village of DunbeathDunbeath
Dunbeath is a village in south-east Caithness, Scotland on the A9 road.It was the birthplace of Neil Gunn , author of The Silver Darlings, Highland River etc., many of whose novels are set in Dunbeath and its Strath...
in the county of Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
, the northernmost county of mainland Scotland. His father was the captain of a herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
boat, and Gunn's fascination with the sea and the courage of fishermen can be traced directly back his childhood memories of his father's work. His mother would also provide Gunn with a crucial model for the types of steadfast, earthy, and tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
-bearing women that would populate many of his works.
Gunn had eight siblings, and when his primary schooling was completed in 1904, he moved south to live with one of his sisters and her husband in St. John's Town of Dalry
St. John's Town of Dalry
St. John's Town of Dalry, usually referred to simply as Dalry, is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, formerly in Kirkcudbrightshire. It is located sixteen miles from Castle Douglas along the A713 road, and is at the southern terminus of the A702 road...
, Kirkcudbrightshire
Kirkcudbrightshire
The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright or Kirkcudbrightshire was a county of south-western Scotland. It was also known as East Galloway, forming the larger Galloway region with Wigtownshire....
. He continued his education there with tutors and sat the Civil Service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
exam in 1907. This led to a move to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where the adolescent Gunn was exposed to both the exciting world of new political and philosophical ideas as well as to the seamier side of modern urban life. In 1910 Gunn became a Customs and Excise Officer and was posted back to the Highlands. He would remain a customs officer throughout the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and until he was well established as a writer in 1937.
Gunn married Jessie Dallas Frew (or "Daisy") in 1921 and they settled in Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
, near his permanent excise post at the Glen Mhor distillery.
Beginnings as a Writer
During the 1920s Gunn began to publish short stories, as well as poems and short essays, in various literary magazines. His writing brought him into contact with other writers associated with the budding Scottish RenaissanceScottish Renaissance
The Scottish Renaissance was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid 20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scottish literary renaissance, although its influence went beyond literature into music, visual arts, and politics...
, such as Hugh MacDiarmid, James Bridie
James Bridie
James Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor....
, Naomi Mitchison
Naomi Mitchison
Naomi May Margaret Mitchison, CBE was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was appointed CBE in 1981; she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since 5 October 1964 .- Childhood and family background :Naomi Margaret Haldane was...
, Eric Linklater
Eric Linklater
Eric Robert Russell Linklater was a British writer, known for more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, travel writing and autobiography, and military history.-Life:...
, Edwin Muir
Edwin Muir
Edwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....
, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell , a Scottish writer.-Biography:...
, and George Blake. Blake and George Malcolm Thomson were the founders of the Porpoise Press, whose mission was to reestablish a national publishing industry for Scotland, and they became Gunn's publisher until their absorption by Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
in the mid-1930s. The first novels Gunn published were The Grey Coast in 1926 and The Lost Glen in 1928.
During this period, he was also active in the National Party of Scotland
National Party of Scotland
The National Party of Scotland was a political party in Scotland and a forerunner of the current Scottish National Party.The NPS was formed in 1928 after John MacCormick of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party...
, which formed part of what became the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
.
The Professional Writer
Following the publishing success of Highland River (for which he was awarded the 1937 James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for fiction), Gunn was able to resign from the Customs and Excise in 1937 and become a full-time writer. He rented a farmhouse near Strathpeffer
Strathpeffer
Strathpeffer is a village and former spa town in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland, with a population of 1,469.-Geography:It lies in a glen 5 miles west of Dingwall, with varying elevation from 200 to 400 feet above sea level...
and embarked on his most productive period as a novelist and essayist.
Gunn's later works in the 1940s and into the 1950s became concerned with issues of totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
.
The Highland Zen Master
Gunn's final full-length work was a discursive autobiography entitled The Atom of Delight. This text showed the influence which a reading of Eugen HerrigelEugen Herrigel
Eugen Herrigel was a German philosopher who taught philosophy at Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Japan, from 1924-1929 and introduced Zen to large parts of Europe through his writings.While living in Japan from 1924 to 1929, he studied kyūdō, traditional Japanese archery, under Awa...
's Zen in the Art of Archery
Zen in the Art of Archery
Zen in the Art of Archery is a short book written by Eugen Herrigel which brought Zen to Europe after World War II. The book was first published in 1948, in Germany.-Author:...
had upon Gunn.
Gunn's utilisation of these ideas was not so much mystical as providing a view of the individual in a "small self-contained community, with a long-established way of life, with actions and responses known and defined". He took the playing of fiddle reels as an example: "how a human hand could perform, on its own, truly astonishing feats - astonishing in the sense that if thought interfered for a moment the feat was destroyed". This thought-free state could be a source of delight.
In his later years, Gunn was involved in broadcasting and also published in diverse journals such as Anarchy Magazine
Anarchy Magazine
Anarchy was an anarchist monthly magazine produced in London from the early 1960s until the early 1970s. It was published by Freedom Press and edited by its founder, Colin Ward.- External links :...
in London, The Glasgow Herald, Holiday (U.S.A.), Saltire Review, Scotland's Magazine, Scots Review, and Point magazine in Leicester.
Neil Gunn is commemorated in Makars' Court
Makars' Court
The Makars' Court is the paved area next to the Scottish Writers' Museum in Lady Stair's Close in Edinburgh, Scotland. The stone slabs of the court are inscribed with the names of Makars...
, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.
Selections for Makars' Court
Makars' Court
The Makars' Court is the paved area next to the Scottish Writers' Museum in Lady Stair's Close in Edinburgh, Scotland. The stone slabs of the court are inscribed with the names of Makars...
are made by The Writers' Museum; The Saltire Society; The Scottish Poetry Library.
See also
- C.J.L. Stokoe, A Bibliography of the Works of Neil M. Gunn, (1987), Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
Works
- The Grey Coast (1926)
- The Lost Glen (1928)
- Hidden Doors (short stories) (1929)
- Morning Tide (1930)
- The Poaching at Grianan (1930 as serial in Scots Magazine) (2005)
- Sun Circle (1933)
- Butcher's Broom (1934)
- Highland RiverHighland RiverHighland River is a novel by Neil M. Gunn. Its plot revolves around a young boy called Kenn who grows up next to the Dunbeath river, then going on to experience the horrors of the First World War and his attempts to rediscover inner peace and satisfaction on his return to his village.-Plot:The plot...
(1937) - Wild Geese Overhead (1939)
- Second Sight (1940)
- The Silver Darlings (1941)
- Young Art and Old HectorYoung Art and Old HectorYoung Art and Old Hector is a novel by Neil M. Gunn. It concerns itself with an 8-year-old boy "Young Art" growing up in the Scottish Highland community of Clachdrum and in episodic form, catalogues a series of adventures and occurrences in his life, often connected with his mentor figure "Old...
(1942) - The Green Isle of the Great DeepThe Green Isle of the Great DeepThe Green Isle of the Great Deep is a 1944 dystopian novel by Neil M. Gunn. Whilst the book features two protagonists from his previous novel, Young Art and Old Hector, Gunn transports the characters into an allegory about totalitarianism and the nature of freedom and legend.-Plot:Young Art and Old...
(1943) - The Serpent (1944)
- The Key of the Chest (1945)
- The Drinking Well (1946)
- The Silver Bough (1948)
- The Shadow (1948)
- The Lost Chart (1949)
- The White Hour (short stories) (1950)
- The Well at the World's End (1951)
- Bloodhunt (1952)
- The Other Landscape (1954)
Essays and autobiography:
- Whisky and Scotland (1935)
- Off in a Boat (1938)
- Highland Pack (1949)
- The Atom of Delight (1956)
External links
- Neil M Gunn Website (includes sound clips of Gunn reading from his books)
- Dunbeath Heritage Centre
- Whose History, Which Novel: Neil M. Gunn and the Gaelic Idea (Richard Price discusses the place of history in Gunn's fiction)
- Wildcat Films Feature length screenplay adaptation of "The Other Landscape"